Prediction markets shown the door

👋 ABOUT TIME prediction markets are getting shown the door… I’ll have more to say below.

AMC Theatres posted their highest quarterly revenue of ALL TIME thanks to Spider-Man and The Odyssey. Plus CAA poaches another UTA client: Alex Cooper and her semi-unwell? Unwell Empire.

Letterboxd is nearing a sale to The New York Times for a reported $330 million, The Weeknd posted the highest grossing tour ever for a male solo act (and 3rd all time), WME files brief on The New York Times, OpenAI lawsuit, The WNBA Finals reached their highest viewership in nearly 30 years, The Voice is launching a TikTok Live companion show, Roku is on the rise in their earnings report (shoutout to Roku City), and LIV Golf shuts down after 5 years of operations.

Also Industry Moves returned with a few big shake ups..

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Two Oscars, Zero Internships and a USC rejection. I sat down with Ben Proudfoot, who now has my favorite story of the year in Entertainment.

He just released a new feature doc, The Eyes of Ghana, with the Obamas’ Higher Ground and IShowSpeed attached, but before he got to this moment in his career, he had a much longer and very inspiring journey. Here is how he described it:

It started with a rejection from the USC Film Program he moved to LA for:
“I had the unusual experience of getting accepted to the university, with a scholarship, but getting rejected from the film school. I got rejected from the production program many times, and figured out I could weasel into the theory program.”

His big break came from a short doc called Ink & Paper, a class project he wasn’t allowed to post online but did anyway:
“I wish I could take credit for a plan to have it go viral, but I don’t think I knew how to put a password on the video at the time. It got a Vimeo Staff Pick, a couple hundred thousand people watched it, and I had 500 emails in my inbox a number of them from production companies.”

With no money, no connections, and a one year clock to get a visa he made his own job literally:
“I applied to many internships and didn’t get anywhere. And as a Canadian, I had one year to make something of myself. So I appointed myself chief executive officer of Breakwater Studios, which sounded more impressive.”

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🎲 Hollywood studios are quietly banning employees from betting on insider information. Wow… Insider info? You don’t say.

Kalshi and Polymarket have made Awards Season anticlimactic. I was at the Globes and the giant Polymarket board got every single award right. Great for them, but terrible for the experience of wondering what name was going to be read aloud. Now studios and production companies are banning their employees from betting on casting, release dates and awards, though obviously catching them will be nearly impossible.

🎬 AMC Theatres set an all-time record for quarterly revenue at a whopping $1.71 billion.

I will hold off on another ‘we are so back’ meme but AMC definitely owes ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ and ‘The Odyssey’ a Christmas thank you card this year.

🟢 Letterboxd is nearing the final stages of a sale to the New York Times for a reported $330 million… does that mean a daily film crossword is incoming?

We can break this down in more detail when/if it goes through, but the most notable fact from first glance is that Letterboxd is set to make $15 million of revenue in 2026… which makes the price tag 20 times that. Wild but more to come on this in the future.

But it looks like the New York Times is doubling down on the future AI-proof growth centers, games, recipes, and now community that rely on human connection and feedback as opposed to articles and written content.

🎵 The Weeknd just finished the highest grossing tour ever by a male solo artist with $1.3 billion earned.

This makes it the 3rd highest grossing tour of all time, behind only Taylor Swift ($2 billion+) and Coldplay ($1.5 billion+).

💻 WME filed a brief in support of The New York Times in its copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft.

WME seeks to preserve the legal framework that lets creators decide whether, and on what terms, their protected work is used to develop or train AI systems.

— WME Company Statement

🏀 The WNBA Finals between the Golden State Valkyries and Atlanta Dream was the league’s most watched playoff game in nearly 30 years with an average of 3.3 million viewers.

🎙️ The Voice is launching a TikTok Live companion that will be led by music creator Josh Brubaker aka Bru on the Radio. Genius play by all involved.

🌆 Roku posted their biggest growth numbers in 4 years as sales increased by 24%, as Fox closed their $22 Billion Roku takeover.

⛳ LIV Golf officially is shutting down after 5 years of challenging the PGA Tour.

Fun fact: My last “real job” before doing this full time, was running digital projects for large companies.. including projects for LIV. What an interesting time… I’ll leave it at that.

Amazon MGM Studios hired Jenny Groom as MGM’s Alternative division, where she will lead legacy shows like Survivor, Shark Tank, and The Voice (I’m sure this is a big deal to a very specific group of people). She is joining from BBC and also spent almost 20 years at NBCUniversal.

Pixar Animation Studios is getting a new President after 12 years, with Jonathan Garson set to take the reins. Jim Morris who previously held the role will shift to becoming President Emeritus.